Hydraulic cleaner control



April Z6, 1932. E, STUMP 1,855,895

HYDRAULIC CLEANER CONTROL 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Dec. 13, 1929 Patented Apr. 26, 1932 TNT OFFICE EARL STUMIE,v OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR. TO ROBERTS AND SCHAEFER COM- PANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION F ELLINOIS i HYDRALIC CLEANER CONTROL Application mea December 13.1929. sel-iai no. 413,717. Y

` This invention relates to an automatic control for a material cleaner. In the form illustrated herewith, the automatic control is particularly applied to a hydroseparator, which may be used for cleaning or washing coal and separating it from refuse in general,`irrespective of the size of the coal itself or of the refuse with which it is associated.

lOne of the objects of the invention is to provide automatic means for controlling the discharge of refuse. Another object is -to provide means for controlling the discharge of refuse which is automatically responsive to the movement of the refuse itself. Other objects will appear from time to time in the specification and claims.

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, in Which- Fig. l is a vertical cross section through a coal washing mechanism to which my inveir tion may be applied;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of Fig. l 5' y Fig. 3'is a detailed vertical cross section on an enlarged scale, showing the refusedis charge gate;l

Like parts are indicated by lilrecharacters throughout the specification and drawings.

A 1s a water chamber into which water is 'il discharged through a nozzleA1 from a supply pipe A2. -Above the chamber A is a separating or cleaning chamber B.V The two chambers are separated by a screen B1. In

the form herewith shown the .screen is a per-` L" forated plate. Any separating parts might be used which would provide a surface across which material might slide and uponV which material might be supported and which would also permit the passage of water through the partition.

B2 indicates a chute' along which material, such for 4example as coal, is discharged into the separating chamber. Y Y 'i B3 is a gate movably positionedv to control the size of the opening through which ma# terial is discharged into thechamber B. B1 is a shaft fastened to thev gate B3 and provided with a threaded upper end B5` upon which a hand wheel B6 is mounted for rotation. By means of rotation of thehand wheel the `gate may be lowered or raised.

O is a partition forming one side of the chamber B and over which the water which y flows from the'chamber A through the perforated plate B1 and through the Vchamber B may be discharged along the passage C1. In communication with the passage C1 a discharge chute or conduit C2 is preferably as- .y

sociated. The cleaned material, such as coal, which is carried by Vthe `upwardly moving current of water over the partition C and along the passage C1, moves into the conduit C2 from 'which it may be conveyed to any suitable place of disposal. Normally the coal and other cleaned material will be separated from the water during this passage.

`D is a refuse chamber into which the refuse is discharged in the manner which will be attached to a lever D4 Vwhich may carry a iso counterweight D5 and is pivotally mounted as D0 on suitable support, which is itself carried on any suitable support. As here shown it is carried on a part of the cleaner housing. Depending downwardly from the opposite end of the lever D4 is a rod D1 which, by means of pivoted links D8, is connected'to a hinged discharge lip D0, which is itself swingingly attached at the lower end of the perforated plate B1 just below the discharge opening D10 in the partition C.

`E is a gate mounted to be raised and lowered in the opening D10 and to control it. The gate may be manipulated to vary the size of the opening D10 or to close it entirely, E1 is a rod extending upwardly from the gate, threaded at its upper end as at E2 and having upon it a hand wheel E0. This wheel may be rotated to raise and lower the gate. E* is a gate section hinged as at E5 to the gate E. Extending from it is a member E0 which is 'joined to an upwardly extending link E7. The link E7 is fastened at its upper end to a lever E8 which is itself at one end, as at E, pivoted on any suitable support. At its opposite end the lever E8 is pivotally attached to an upward extension E10 of the rod D3.

The chute or trough C2 has within it a perforated plate F, which is above its bottom and which in eiiect divides it into a coal or material chute yabove the perforated plate and a water conduit or trough below the plate. The water conduit communicates with a receiving tank F1 which may be provided with a downwardly depending baffle F2, a partition F3 and a Aconduit F 'l by means of which water may be withdrawn from the tank F1 by means of the centrifugal .pump F5 which communicates with the conduit A2 to which the nozzleA.1 is attached.

AGr is ali-extension from the chute C2 along which coal or other material which has been cleaned may pass to any suitable discharge point. G1 is a baille located within the chute C2, adapted to prevent, as far as possible, the Vpassage of water along the chute beyond the baiile.

Atvarious positions in the drawing coal particles are indicated by X and refuse particles by Y. They `are initially introduced into fthe machine together and the separation occurs in the chamber B.

It will be understood that while I have described and shown a practical, operative device, nevertheless .many changes might be made in the size, shape, =number and disposition of parts, without departing from the spirit of my invention. In the-clrawings,for the sake of clearness and'to avoid confusion of lines, the perforated metal plates B1 and F are shown in Figure 2 as screens. Of course, screens might be usedinstead of the plates, although plates will ordinarilybe used.

In dealing with coal, the heavier material, slate, sulphur, bone coal etc., is the refuse. It is that material ythat I want to get rido-f, but dealing with many vother raw materials, it may be Vthat the heavierparts are what I want .to save. If, for instance, I am working with ores, frequently 'the values are heavy and the tailings are light. The majority of commercial use of my device is with coal, although it may be 'used in separating any kind of vmaterial and where I use the word refuse, I merely vmean to refer to the heavier element of the physical mixture, if for coal, the refuse :is thrown away, if for ore, the refuseis what I-keep and the tailings orstone isthrown away.

A separating device such as mine depends for its operation on vthe vpresence -of refuse. Some material'mustvalways pass out at the bottom of the :refuse chamber. If there is no refuse present, that material will be coal.

If there is an adequate amount of refuse present, the refuse passes out and no coal comes out. This makes it especially important to be able to control with great accuracy the opening through which the refuse flows, because if I have a wide-open door and there is not enough refuse to iill the door, coal goes out. If I have too narrow a door, refuse cannot get out and the system will be flooded with refuse. It becomes, therefore, necessary to have some measure o'f automatic control which will be directly responsive to the refuse `and which will be sufiicient to automatically maintain the refuse opening at the required size to seldom if ever let coal get out and at the same time to take `care of and dispose of the continuously forming mass of reruse.

There is a limit beyond which .it is not practically satisfactory to close the refuse gate. I'Vhen very small quantities of refuse are present the opening of thegate lmay still be big enough so that `the necessary bed of efuse would not be built up. Under these circumstances especially, it becomes 'of the utmost importance to have `the lfip co-operatf ing with the gate so that while the gate may remain open enough to take care, of Va sudden influx of refuse material, the lip-co-operating with it will maintain an adequate bed of refus-e on the screen.

The gate automatically operates in 4response to variations in operating conditions,vto vari-- ations in thickness of the refuse bed. Under this `operation there-is no vmanual icontrol. The manualcontrol of gateA opening is 4for the purpose of initially setting .the gate lto take care of the particular size of material being handled. Once this initial manual adjustment is made, the apparatus thereafter automatically takes care of itself and it will be understood that this manual adjustment'will be made for each particular size of material and thereafter, as long as material -of that general size passes through the system, manual .adjustment ,needs not to be varied.

In the claims, where I use the language coal cleaner', or coal separator or material cleaner, it will be understoodthat I am using this language merely as explanatory. The problem always present ing-the yhandling of bulk materials is `to separate heavy from light. Perhaps the heavy is .what is -wanted, perhaps the light is vwhat is wanted. It is usually thought of as aA cleaning process. What is not wanted is vcleaned out and taken vaway and it is lthis kind of separating or cleaning, as applied to coal or ore-or any other fragmentary material to which nay claims are directed and by heavy and light I am, of course, not re ferring tovgross weight of particles of vari'- ous sizes but to the specific gravity of the material.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows:

My invention, as herein applied, is associated with a hydroseparator, the operation of which is briefly as follows: water is forced into a separating chamber and by reason of the shape of the chamber it rises upwardly in it and overflows at one edge. Some of the water will also pass out of the chamber through an opening in its wall but there is always in the separating chamber a powerful upwardly rising water current. A mixed stream of material to be cleaned and refuse, such as coal for example, slate and other refuse, is discharged downwardly into and across the separating chamber and thus this stream of material encounters the upwardly rising water current. The refuse being heavier than the coal, it continues downwardly along the perforated plate and thus moves across the separating chamber. The coal, being lighter, is separated by the water from the refuse and rises upwardly with the rising water current. It is then carried over one wall of the separating chamber and is discharged from it with the water current which over flows the wall and continues into a discharge yand separating chute. This chute is provided with a perforated partition by means of which the coal is dewatered and permitted to continue its movement outwardly to any suitable discharge. The water itself, as it leaves the coal, passes through the perforated partition in the coal chute and is gathered up and discharged into a receiving chamber from which it is withdrawn-and again redischarged into the separating chamber.

The refuse, after it is separated from the coal in the separating chamber, moves downwardly and laterally across the separating chamber toward an opening in one of the walls of that chamber. This opening is provided with a gate which may be raised and lowered to any suitable adjusted position. A movably mounted discharge lip is hinged near the lower edge of the perforated plate which extends across and through the separating chamber and this lip is connected to a lever at the opposite end of which a oat is provided. The position of the float is controlled by variations in the level of water in the refuse chamber. It has been found that in cleaning coal with a varying percentage of refuse, the level of the water in the refuse chamber rises and falls in response tofvariation in the amount of refuse at the bottom of the separating chamber. If a large amount of refuse is present with the coal as it is discharged into the separating chamber, the accumulation will be more rapid and the level of water in the refuse chamber will be higher. As the percentage of refuse coming in with the coal is decreased, the level of water in the refuse-chamber lowers, as the accumulation or concentration of refuse decreases. Since the hinged lip is connected to and movable by the float, which itself is positioned in the refuse chamber, a variation of the level of water in that chamber causes an automatic adjustment of the position of the hinged discharge lip. Vhen operating under normal conditions and at a fixed capacity the float and the discharge lip stay approximately stationary and the refuse passes out from the separating chamber into the refuse chamber at a relatively constant rate. If the quantity of refuse increases or if for any reason anvaccumulation of refuse occurs at or near the discharge opening from the separating chamber, the level of the water in the refuse chamber rises, lifting the float and this movement of the float moves the hinged lip to permit more rapid discharge of material and thus, of course, to cause a more rapid rate of discharge of refuse. It has been found thatl sometimes disturbance in the rate of discharge is caused by the lodgment of one or more particles of refuse across the discharge opening. Such a particle of refuse is vindicated by Z in Fig. 3. The presence of this particle will tend to cause disturbance of the rate of discharge of refuse from the separating chamber with the consequent rise of level of water in the refuse chamber. As the float raises or lowers the hinged discharge lip,.the lever E8 is raised and raises the link' E7, thus causing the section E4 to swing backward into the dotted line position of Fig. 3 and thus additionally the opening for the discharge of refuse from the separating chamber is increased since the raising of the float opens the gate and also moves the discharge lip toa wider open position. Both of these movements occur as a result of the rise of level of the water in the refuse chamber. As soon as the discharge of refuse from the separating chamber again assumes a normal. rate, :the level of the water in the refuse chamber tends to lower, the gate is again partially closed and the discharge lip raised. Thus the mechanism shown herewith auto matically and positively adapts itself to variations in the quality of material and the rate of feed of material and adjustments, therefore, need not be made by an operator, the machine being entirely automatic in its operation. Y

In general, as refuse accumulates on the plate or screen between the separating chamber and the water chamber, the flow of water through the screen is resisted and a differential pressure builds up. This differential eX- presses itself in a flow of water into the ioat chamber and thus as the refuse accumulates on the screen, the water level in the float chamber, because of the increased resistance by the refuse, rises to raise the float and thereby permit an easier escape of refuse.

I claim:

1. In'avhydraulic coal cleaner, .a pair-Tof chambers, normally water filled', a'partition separating them, said partitionV having. "an opening, a' gate and a vdischarge lip controlling discharge through said opening. and automatic means for'varying the position: of said gate and said discharge lip 'in response to variations inthe movement of refuse through said opening. 4

2. In combination ina hydraulic material separating machine, a separating chamber, means yfor feeding material to said chamber, means for discharging upwardly through said chamber' a rising current of water, whereby the lighter material is raised -from thel heavier material, a refuse chamber, a parl titio-n between the two chambers having'an opening, a gate adapted to'control said opening, a discharge lip beyond said opening and within the refuse chamber, a? floatada-pted to rise and vfall. in'response to variations in the level ofthe Water, connections between said float, said lip and said gate, wherebyithe lip and gate are automatically moved'in response to the water level 4variations to'vary the size of theI discharge opening.`

3f In' combination in al hydraulic material separating `machine, a separating chamber,

means for feeding materialt-o said chamber,

means for discharging 'upwardly through said chamber a rising current of Water, whereby the lighter material is raised from the heavier material, a refuse chamber, a partition 4betweenl the two chambers having an opening, a gate adapted to control said opening,'a discharge 'lip beyond said opening and within the refuse chamber, a float within the refuse chamber and adapted to rise and ffal'l in response tovariations in the level ofthe water within the said chamber, connections between said` float, said 'lip' and Said gate, whereby the lip and gate are automatically moved in"respense to the water level variations to vary the size of the discharge opening.

Signed'at Matoala, county' of Mercer, and State offlVest Virginia,- this V15th day Vot November, 1929 EARL STUMP. 

